A true crime podcast hosted by Robin Warder

The Trail Went Cold – Episode 33 – The Orange Sock Murders

January 6, 1982. Breckenridge, Colorado. After finishing her shift at work, 29-year old Bobbie Oberholtzer phones her husband to say she is going out for drinks with friends. Bobbie never returns home and is found shot to death the following day. Strangely, an orange sock which does not belong to Bobbie is found at the murder scene. Six months later, the body of a 21-year old missing woman named Annette Schnee is found and she is wearing the matching orange sock. This piece of evidence suggests that both victims were murdered on the same night by the same perpetrator at different locations. But who could have been responsible for such a brazen crime, and was there more than one person involved? On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we examine the infamous unsolved case known as the “Orange Sock Murders”.

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Also, a big thanks to Esther Gamez for providing us with another terrific piece of cover art for this episode. Be sure to check out Esther’s Facebook and Tumblr pages to see more of her artwork.

Listeners attending CrimeCon 2017 from June 9th-11th at the JW Marriott in Indianapolis can receive a 20% discount on their ticket purchase by using the code “TTWC20”

Has anyone looked into Jamie Oberholtzer as a suspect? Or would the DNA test of Jeff have exonerated him, too? Could the test have determined that the killer wasn’t closely related to Jeff, or merely that Jeff specifically was not the killer? I’m fairly sure that today we could know whether the killer was a relative, but I don’t know much about DNA testing in 1990. Barring adoption, I’d have to assume that Jamie was also ruled out, but he pings something in my brain that shouts, “Hey! Suspicious!”

I had the exact same thoughts about Jamie, as having an obsession with his brother’s wife and then pointing to his brother as the suspect in her murder should definitely raise red flags. I’m not entirely sure how thoroughly he was investigated, but the fact that Jamie’s never been named as a potential suspect makes me think he was probably ruled out.

Henry Lee Lucas of course had Ottis Toole as his accomplice, and the picture of super-prolific sexual predators that the two painted of themselves with their confessions sort of matches how the perpetrator(s) of this case come across. But I’d imagine (or at least hope) that officials would have tested Lucas’ DNA as well, unless they had already ruled him out via other means.